Bottom emptying urine collection container



1968 F. HINMAN, JR.. ETAL 3,415,299

7 BOTTOM EMPTYING URINE COLLECTION CONTAINER Filed Nov. 21, 1966 FIG. I.

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l i 600 1 400 I 3 l l i IN VENTORS FM/V/f mwm JR. mm. 0. m mm I Jamw J. AMA/75f A TTORNE Y United States Patent 3,415,299 BOTTOM EMPTYING URINE COLLECTION CONTAINER Frank Hinman, Jr., San Francisco, Bern D. Folkman, Van Nuys, and Joseph J. Arcarese, North Hollywood, Calif., assignors, by mesne assignments, to American Hospital Supply Corporation, a corporation of Illinois Filed Nov. 21, 1966, Ser. No. 595,872 8 Claims. (Cl. 150-8) This invention relates to a container for collecting urine from a patient and more particularly to such a container that can be emptied from its bottom without contaminating the urine in the container or spilling urine on an operator emptying the container.

Very often a hospital patient is catheterized, such as after a prostatectomyoperation, and urine drains out through a catheter, along a flexible drainage tube, and into a collecting container. Periodically these collecting containers must be emptied, and this invention concerns a container which can be emptied while still connected to the drainage tube leading from the patient.

In many of the previous urine collection containers, an inlet at its top served both as a filling inlet and as an emptying outlet. When emptying such a container, an operator had to disconnect the flexible drainage tube from the inlet so he could invert the container and pour out the urine. This procedure was messy and an operator could, if not careful, contaminate a large external area about the inlet with urine from the container. This urine which had remained in the container for a considerable time might contain contaminating bacteria which could contact an end of the drainage tube when reconnected to the containers inlet and possibly work its way into a patients bladder. Applicants container drains from its bottom and has a rigid housing about an emptying tube which precludes this from happening.

Perhaps this invention can be better understood by referring to the drawings, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a front elevational view of the bottom emptying collection container connected to a drainage tube;

FIGURE 2 is a bottom plan view of FIGURE 1; and

FIGURE 3 is an enlarged sectional view of an outlet port structure of the bottom emptying collection container.

Referring to the drawings, a variable volume container 1, such as a l-ayflat bag, has an inlet 2 at its top and an outlet 3 at its bottom. In FIGURE 1, the container inlet 2 has an upstanding neck 7 connected to an adapter 6 which in turn is connected to a drainage tube 4 adjacent its end 9. At an opposite end of drainage tube 4 is a catheter adapter 5 for connecting to a urethral catheter in a patient. Thus, urine fiows from the patient along tube 4 through adapter 6 and into container 1, which can be hung from a bedrail or carried by a hanger 12 attached to supports and 11.

To guard against the container becoming overly full of urine, an overflow vent 8 is provided either in neck 7 or adapter 6 at a point below end 9 of drainage tube 4. Should collected urine in container 1 overflow through vent 8 it will not contaminate the urine dripping from end 9 of drainage tube 4, because there is an air space between drainage tube end 9 and vent 8.

Although the container has this overflow, it should be emptied through its bottom outlet before it becomes this full. The containers outlet has a port structure which includes a rigid transparent thermoplastic emptying tube 13 with an upper end 14 sealed to outlet 3 of container 1. This emptying tube 13 has a passage 16 that extends longitudinally therethrough between upper end 14 and lower end 15. Intermediate these two ends of emptying tube 13 is a transverse tapered passage 17 forming a valve seat for a rotary valve core 18. This valve core 18 has a passage 19 and can selectively open and close passage 16.

Adjacent lower end 15 of emptying tube 13 is a rigid transparent thermoplastic bell-shaped housing 20 connected to the emptying tube 13 with a drip tube segment 23 of emptying tube 13 extending a short distance into housing 20. This housing 20 with a wall 21 spacedly supported a distance from the emptying tubes lower end 15 protects it from contamination and gives an operator a convenient place to grasp for manipulating the emptying tube 13 when draining container 1. Housing wall 21 terminates at its lower end in a mouth 22 which has a larger diameter than the diameter of passage 16 at lower end 15 of emptying tube 13. With this structure urine can drip or stream out of drip tube segment 23 of emptying tube 13 and pass out through housing-20 without touching the housing 20.

A removable closure 24 with a skirt 26 and an end wall 25 closes off mouth 22 of bell-shaped housing and protects lower end 15 of emptying tube 13 from bacterial contamination, whether air borne or from other sources. The end wall 25 is spaced a distance below lower end 15 of emptying tube 13 so as not to touch any moisture or urine that might be on this lower end 15. A cooperating rib 27 and groove 28 on housing wall 21 and skirt 26 keep the flexible thermoplastic closure snap fitted to housing 20 until pulled off by handle 29. When an operator empties the container, he pulls off closure 24 and bends it downwardly so an inclined section 33- of skirt 26 can clear housing wall 20. Next, he swings closure 24 around pivot pin 30 on a laterally extending support member 31 on the housing 20 to a position as shown in FIGURE 1. An enlarged head 34 on pivot pin 30 keeps closure 24 in a generally lateral position. In this position the closure is completely out of the way of urine draining through empying tube 13 and past its lower end 15. Finally, valve core 18 is turned to open passage 16.

After the container has been emptied, closure 24 is again snapped onto housing 20, protecting its interior from contamination, and collection of urine from the patient continues. During the above emptying procedure, the drainage tube 4, adapter 6 and container 1 were permanently sealed together, forming :a unitized unseparable channel for urine to flow. With applicants invention there is no need to disconnect inlet 2 to empty the container.

The applicants have used a specific embodiment to illustrate their invention. However, it is understood that persons skilled in the art can make certain modifications to this embodiment without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

We claim:

1. A combination for handling urine comprising: a container with an inlet for connecting to a conduit leading from a patient and with an outlet at its bottom for draining urine from the container; an emptying tube with a longitudinal passage therethrough, said tube connected to the containers outlet and extending downwardly from the containers outlet to the tubes lower end; a rigid housing connected to the tube, which housing has a wall spacedly supported a distance from the tubes lower end, said housing having a mouth of greater cross-sectional area than the cross-sectional area of the tubes passage at its lower end; a removable closure closing off the housings mouth; and a manually manipulable means for opening and closing the passage through said tube.

2. A combination for handling urine as set forth in claim 1 wherein a portion of the emptying tube adjacent its lower end extends a distance into the rigid housing,

to form a drip tube segment.

3. A combination for handling urine as set forth in claim 1 wherein the closure is spacedfrom the tubes lower end when closing off the housings mouth so as not to contact the tubes lower end.

4. A combination for handling urine as set forth in claim 1 wherein the housing has means for retaining the closure in :a position removed from the housings mouth when not closing off the housings mouth so urine draining from the emptying tube does not contact the closure.

5. A combination for handling urine as set forth in claim 1 wherein the manually manipulable means for opening and closing the passage through the emptying tube is a rotary valve connected to the emptying tube.

6. A combination for handling urine comprising: a variable volume container with a tubular neck at its top which has an inlet passage therethrough; a flexible drainage tube with one end adapted to connect to a catheter and with another end leading to the inlet passage of the tubular neck; an adapter permanently sealed to the flexible tubular conduit and to the tubular neck to provide a continuous unseparable passage for urine to flow along the flexible conduit, through the adapter and into the variable volume container; said adapter and tubular neck forming a sub-combination having a vent through a wall thereof, said vent located below an end of the flexible drainage tube connected to the adapter;- said variable volume container having an outlet at a bottom thereof; a rigid transparent emptying tube connected at an upper end to the containers outlet and extending outwardly from the container to the emptying tubes lower end, said emptying tube having a longitudinal passage therethrough :and a transverse passage which forms a transverse valve seat; a valve core rotatably mounted in the transverse valve seat passage, saidcore having a a passage therethrough selectively connectable with the passage through the emptying tube; a rigid transparent housing attached to the emptying tube, which housing has a wall spacedly supported about the emptying tubes lower end; said housing having a mouth of larger cross-sectional area than the cross-sectional area of the lOIlgitlldlr a removableclosure pivotally connected to the pivot post nalpassage at the emptying tubes lower end; a portion of the emptying tube adjacent the lower end of the emptying tube extending a distance into the housing forming a drip tube segment; a closure support integral with the housing and extending laterally outwardly therefrom, said support having a pivot post for retaining a closure;

and having an end wall closing off the mouth of the rigid housing with this end wall spaced from the emptying tubes lower end; which closure has a skirt removably engaging the rigid housing, said skirt and housing having means for retaining the skirt on the housing; and a pull tab on the removable closure facilitating the removal of the closures skirt fromthe housing so the closure can be pivoted away from the'housings mouth where it will not be contacted by urine draining from the emptying tubes lower end.

7. In a liquid handling container with a bottom outlet, the improvement of the following combination for emptying liquid from the container without contaminating the liquid, said combination comprising: a rigid emptying tube with a longitudinal passage therethrough, said emptying tube adapted to be permanently connected at its upper end to the container outlet and extend outwardly to the tubes lower end, a rotary valve connected to the tube intermediate its two ends for selectively opening and closing the longitudinal passage through the emptying tube; a rigid bell-shaped housing connected to the emptying tube, said bell-shaped 'housing having a mouth at its lower end, which mouth has a greater cross-sectional area than the cross-sectional area of the passage at the emptying tubes lower end; and a removable closure closing off the mouth of the bell-shaped housing.

8. The combination as set forth in claim 7 wherein the emptying tube and bell-shaped housing are transparent so liquid can be observed draining out of the emptying tubes lower end.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 

1. A COMBINATION FOR HANDLING URINE COMPRISING: A CONTAINER WITH AN INLET FOR CONNECTING TO A CONDUIT LEADING FROM A PATIENT AND WITH AN OUTLET AT ITS BOTTOM FOR DRAINING URINE FROM THE CONTAINER; AN EMPTYING TUBE WITH A LONGITUDINAL PASSAGE THERETHROUGH, SAID TUBE CONNECTED TO THE CONTAINER''S OUTLET AND EXTENDING DOWNWARDLY FROM THE CONTAINER''S OUTLET TO THE TUBE''S LOWER END; A RIGID HOUSING CONNECTED TO THE TUBE, WHICH HOUSING HAS A WALL 